"Comrades, everyone is free to move around. We will be back for training later."
"It's your order!" Xiao Gao, the squad leader on the phone, took the lead and ran towards the imperial mausoleum at the back before Wang Ke could finish. A white marble archway with three rooms, four pillars and a third floor was built on top of it. The stone archway was connected with walls on both sides and the middle door of the archway. The forehead square on the front is engraved with Manchu and Mongolian Chinese characters.
The whole platoon ran towards the back hill, and Wang Ke went directly into Long'en Hall.
The delicate and compact architectural model, the elegant architectural style, and the exquisite nanmu dragon carvings have become the characteristics of the mausoleum.
The Longen Gate is built on a stone Xumizuo, with gold bricks on the platform, and three central doors. There is no furnace inside the door. There are cloisters around the hall. There are only two copper stoves on the platform. There are stone buildings and a Jialiang on the east and west corners of the platform.
The three rooms on the front of the hall all have open doors, the east and west sides of the hall have open doors in the middle, and the rest are closed by brick walls.
The blue bricks in the Long En Hall are all made by grinding the bricks to the seams and dry grouting to the top. Wang Ke touched the green bricks with his hands and couldn't help but be filled with emotion. It is really not easy to polish the bricks to this level. There is only a thin seam between the two bricks, no, strictly speaking, it is called a fine line.
I think back then, the two sides of the brick must have been polished to look like a mirror, and then filled with thick glutinous rice slurry. It was really a miraculous workmanship.
Wang Ke spent a long time looking at Long'en Hall alone. He was no longer just looking at the excitement and scenery like he did at the beginning. Over the past year or so under the influence of Professor He Wen, many good habits have been developed.
That is to observe, see what makes it unique, and find out its historical and cultural value.
This is a palace of wood carving art. The three nanmu palaces do not use paint. Instead, they use high relief and openwork carving techniques to carve Yunlong, Youlong and Panlong on the nanmu. After the original color is hot-waxed, they are decorated on the ceiling and sparrows. , partitions, doors and windows, tapestry boards, etc., with simple brown color, gray and yellow walls, blue sky and white clouds, green trees and golden roofs, elegance and solemnity, pure green and pure dust, it has its own sense of remoteness, mystery, simplicity and detachment. magnanimity.
These dragons attracted Wang Ke. He stood there and counted them, but it was too difficult to count them all.
"No need to count, there are 1,318 in the entire mausoleum area." Uncle Geng, who didn't know when, was already standing beside him.
"Uncle Geng, are you coming in too?"
"Why didn't you go to the back and count the dragons here?" Uncle Geng did not answer Wang Ke. He was still a little worried, so he opened the door and came in to see these little warriors.
"Hey, it's amazing, Uncle Geng, look at these dragons, they all have different expressions, not one of them is the same."
"Yes, look at the Long'en Hall. There are 714 wooden dragons, but some say there are 1,096 dragons." Uncle Geng continued to introduce.
"Why are there so many dragons carved?" Wang Ke asked deliberately and curiously.
"Hey, the old emperor believed that the reason why the underground palace he spent a lot of money to build was flooded and later had to be moved was because dragons drilled into their holes and spit water from their mouths. If the dragons were invited to the sky, the dragons would compete for water in the sky. He spit water into the underground palace."
"Hahaha..." Wang Ke laughed. In fact, Uncle Geng's statement is widely recognized by the people, but there is also another story.
The emperor ascended the throne at the age of 40 and reigned for 29 years. During this period, most of the beginning of spring occurred around February 4 of the Gregorian calendar. However, a unique strange phenomenon occurred, that is, all the winter solstice during the 29 years of this emperor's reign, It is always December 22 of the Gregorian calendar.
Are you talking about coincidence? Even the stars in the sky cannot have this kind of treatment.
The winter solstice is the most important of the 24 solar terms. The winter solstice is the first day of the ninth month, and the New Year will be celebrated in nine days. Many people would never think that such a day has anything to do with the emperor?
It happens to be related, historical records record. The emperor's father's zodiac sign was Dragon, and his own zodiac sign was Tiger. The father is a dragon and the son is a tiger. "Dragon and tiger fight"! After being a prince for 40 years, he finally managed to succeed as emperor. At that time, a person's life span was only 50 years old, and life span of 70 years was rare in ancient times.
Forget it, he finally took over the job anyway, but the most strange thing is that after taking office, although the emperor worked diligently, he failed to make up for his shortcomings. The national destiny continued to decline, and he even signed a treaty of Nanjing that was humiliating and humiliating the country. Why did he just ignore it like this? ah?
He has always wanted to explore why his luck is like this?
More than 20 winter solstices are all on the same day. Most people can't find it, but he did. Because in the past customs, the winter solstice was also a day to honor ancestors. So every December 22nd, his father would come to him and remind him to pay more visits. In fact, he was just worried, which made him busy paying homage to the deceased "dragon".
Therefore, for this emperor, the winter solstice was an evil day.
Is it true that the dragon and the tiger are in conflict with each other as mentioned in physiognomy? Coupled with the fact that the underground palace he built was flooded, the emperor did not have a good impression of the dragon.
So he built a dry river behind the Longen Hall in this mausoleum area, called "Yudai River". On the surface, the groundwater in the underground palace is drained through Longxugou. In fact, how to raise dragons in a waterless river?
Standing in the Long'en Hall, looking back towards the Long'en Gate, I saw that there was no water at all in the several-meter-deep river.
The dragon dies of thirst, the dragon dies of drought, the dragon dies of drought (golden nanmu)!
1318 dragons, called "lifelong companions" in today's words, and his wife who died young? But at that time, I don’t know if it had this meaning. If so, could the 714 dragons in Long’en Hall be understood as “angry to death”?
But the emperor carved 1,318 dragons in the entire mausoleum area, which must have a purpose. This is definitely not an arbitrary number. And the choice of 714 dragons in Long'en Hall instead of 999 must also have a purpose, at least implicitly. Very disrespectful.
When Wang Ke told Uncle Geng the story he heard from Professor Wen, Uncle Geng was dumbfounded. "How could this happen? I have to check the imperial calendar. His and his father's zodiac signs are really dragon and tiger? And you said that the winter solstice fell on the same day in the 29 years of his reign? This is too weird, I don't believe it. .”
"Uncle Geng, I promise Mr. Mao that I have checked the Ten Thousand Years Imperial Calendar and it is absolutely true. I don't know how many dragons are carved here. Also, are there any tigers carved here?" Wang Keyi His face was serious. There was no Baidu at that time. If it were now, these two problems would have been found out in five seconds.
If it is true, historians, astronomers, folklorists, and Bagua Zhouyi scholars will all study it, and then this period of history may also have to be rewritten. It is disrespectful. This is a matter of character!
Uncle Geng looked at Wang Ke and then at Long'en Hall. The tomb he had guarded for so many years actually hid such a big secret. What cannot be solved now is the meaning behind the number of carved dragons. I believe that in a few decades, when technology is developed, it will be deciphered.
Uncle Geng nodded and asked, "Platoon Leader Wang, where else do you want to see? I'll accompany you."
Wang Ke looked towards the square in the middle of Longen Gate. There were the same three-way single-arch bridge and two-way flat bridge. To the left of Longen Hall, a row of spruce trees planted by someone unknown towered into the clouds, and there were several curved spruce trees. Peach trees grow in the crevices of the rocks on the shore.
The fireworks of war did not destroy everything here.
The changes of the times have further sedimented this period of history. Those peach trees were obviously not originally planted in the mausoleum. The peach stones brought by unknown birds took root and sprouted here. Now they have grown into trees thicker than arms. , but it also looks funny in this sacred Muling.
Wang Ke's eyes returned to the dry Jade Belt River in front of Long'en Hall. No one had ever gone down into this river, because if he went down without the help of outsiders and ladders, he would definitely be trapped in the river and would not be able to climb up. Come up.
The bottom of the river is all smooth bluestone, and the river sides on both sides are also made of bluestone with seams. There is not even a seam, and there is no place to use to climb up. It is too difficult!
"Uncle Geng, have you ever been in this river?"
"Go down to the Yudai River? Why do you want to go down? What is there to see there?" Uncle Geng was curious now. Xiao Wang, the platoon leader, had so many interesting and beautiful scenery on it. He actually lost interest and wanted to run to the dry place. in the river.
"Platoon Commander Wang, what do you want to go down to see? You can see it at a glance from above. It's difficult to go down, but it's even harder to come up."
Wang Ke walked to the bridge and looked down. There were a lot of rotten leaves piled under the river. Wang Ke didn't answer. He continued to ask Uncle Geng, "Uncle Geng, have you never been there?"
"It's hard to get down, and you can't get up even if you get down. I've been guarding the tomb here for almost 30 years, but I've never gotten down there, and neither have the people who come here to visit."
"Oh." Wang Ke understood. There is nothing to see in places where everyone has been. Only in places where there are no people can you discover things you don't know.
Also, if you don’t enter the tiger’s den, how can you catch the tiger’s cubs? If you don't go down, how can you see the scenery that others can't see?
At this time, he noticed from a distance that Wang Mingsheng and health worker Yu Deben were back, and he quickly waved to them.
Soon, two people came running. When Yu Deben saw the peach tree, there were a lot of peach hanging on it, and he immediately ran to pick it. And Wang Mingsheng ran over.
"Platoon commander, what's wrong?"
"Well, Wang Mingsheng, I want to go down into this river. What can you do?"
Wang Mingsheng stretched his head to look down the river. It was several meters deep, equivalent to the height of a two-story building. "Platoon leader, you want to go down here. Did something fall down?"
Wang Mingsheng had developed a great liking for the skinny platoon leader in front of him since he had just beaten the mad dog. He was even more surprised to be able to visit the mausoleum on the second day after coming to the reconnaissance team.
"I just want to go down and have a look." Wang Ke said. According to common sense, in this river, you can see it from the top, and normal people would not think about going down. But Wang Ke is not a normal person at this time.
"Okay, platoon leader, wait a moment, I'll think of a solution." After saying that, Wang Mingsheng ran to the side hall on the left, where the entire platoon's equipment was piled.
After a while, Wang Mingsheng came back with something in his hand that even Wang Ke had not thought of, a leggings.
Because we were not training in the mountains today, no one brought them with them, but Wang Mingsheng brought them, which made Wang Ke feel unexpected and also have a new feeling.
"Platoon leader, use both legs to hang you down, but I'm afraid I can't do it alone, at least two people are needed."
"Well, Lao Yu, come here and help me. Why are you picking those peaches? You can't eat them." Wang Ke called to the health worker Yu Deben.
But the health worker Yu Deben ignored Wang Ke and he was still picking it. Wang Ke shook his head helplessly.
"Platoon Leader Wang, come here and let me help you. Be careful when you go down. By the way, help me throw some broken branches up." Uncle Geng came over and he squatted down.
The two leggings were more than two meters long. Wang Ke grabbed one end and wrapped it around his hand, while the other end was grabbed by Wang Mingsheng and Uncle Geng. Just beside the bridge on one side, Wang Ke slid down to the river.
But what he didn't expect was that after putting on the leggings, Wang Ke still didn't get to the bottom. He looked down and saw that he was still about fifty or sixty centimeters from the bottom of the river. He simply loosened his grip and jumped in.
"Haha!" Wang Ke jumped off the river bed and looked up. He was more than five meters high.
"Okay, Wang Mingsheng, you continue to think of a solution. I'll take a look below. You can drag me up later."
"Lao Kezi, you still want to come up. You can play down there by yourself. We will leave in a while." At this time, health worker Yu Deben came over with a handful of peaches, condescendingly teasing Wang Ke.
At this time, Wang Ke had already started collecting rotten branches along the river.
